1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic money systems and to electronic money terminals, and the present invention can be applied to, for example, electronic money systems using contactless IC cards. When it is impossible to complete communication to a management center within a predetermined period of time, the communication is terminated indistinguishably from a case in which the communication to the management center is completed. Alternatively, by switching an operation mode, uploading and downloading are performed using a predetermined portable terminal unit in place of a communication line. When it is difficult to obtain data required for processing through a communication line, processing is performed based on data possessed up until that time. Therefore, when a line connected to the management center has a malfunction, it is possible to perform appropriate processing in spite of the malfunction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, electronic money systems using portable information terminals held by users are available for use in some areas. In this type of system, electronic money is recorded on an IC card, that is, a portable information terminal, and when making a payment using the electronic money, the record on the IC card is updated by a terminal at a store, thus subtracting the payment amount from the electronic money on the IC card. The store terminal directly communicates the payment by the IC card to a management center, or the store terminal records the payment by the IC card and then communicates the payment to the management center. The payment is settled by the management center.
Concerning IC cards used in these electronic money systems, contact IC cards configured to be accessed by electrical connection through a contact and contactless IC cards configured to be accessed contactlessly such as by antenna coupling are available for use.
Among these IC cards, when a contactless IC card using antenna coupling is held near a reader/writer, which is a dedicated access unit, a radio-frequency signal transmitted from the reader/writer is induced in the antenna of the IC card, and the IC card is activated by power generated by the radio-frequency signal. In response to commands input through the radio-frequency signal from the reader/writer, the IC card transmits data stored in a memory thereof to the reader/writer. Using data output from the reader/writer, the content of the memory is updated.
Contactless IC cards provide higher reliability compared with contact IC cards since the former are contactless.
In electronic money systems, a store terminal may record, for example, payments made by IC cards in a hard disk drive or the like and may store the data. The store terminal may batch transmit the recorded data to the management center through public lines such as telephone lines.
In the case of uploading such data concerning payments, a line may have a malfunction.
Specifically, it may require an extremely long period of time to upload data due to the high line traffic. Furthermore, it may be difficult to establish a connection to the management center. In such cases, when a salesclerk performs uploading of these data after business hours and waits for the completion of the uploading before going home, the salesclerk may not be able to go home. At a store that is open 24 hours a day, processing of payments by electronic money tends to fall behind in a store terminal dedicated to performing uploading.
In this type of system, various data are encrypted and then transmitted/received. In view of preventing key data leakage, a terminal may delete the stored key data when power is turned off. In such a case, the terminal accesses the management center when power is turned on and obtains new key data.
When the system is configured in this manner, and when a line has a malfunction as described above, it becomes difficult to obtain key data or it requires a long period of time to obtain key data. In this way, the store terminal has difficulty in executing processing concerning electronic money.